— Speaking of slapping folks with undeserved anti-semite tags, Pete Seeger just got one for his joining the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) campaign intended to persuade Israel to turn away from the path of racism and eliminationism. He shares this distinction with Dov Yermiya, a former IDF officer and whistleblower who is heartsick over what people like Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman have done.

— With the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War’s start this year, Sarah Anderson (via Sally Jo Sorensen’s Bluestem Prairie) reminds us that the safety net which Koch Bircher Tea Party Republicans are so intent on slashing is what kept America together in the aftermath of the Civil War.

The news media all dutifully reported that Eric Fuller, a former campaign worker for Gabrielle Giffords who was of the last persons to actually speak to her before she was shot in the head and he took bullets in the knee and back, yelled and screamed “You’re dead!” at Tucson Tea Party leader Trent Humphries, which action caused Fuller to be hauled off and involuntarily committed to a mental hospital pending a medical evaluation.

What these stories didn’t mention is what might have led Fuller to confront Humphries in the first place.

“It’s political gamesmanship. The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?” he said. “For all the stuff they accuse her [Palin] of, that gun poster has not done a tenth of the damage to the political discourse as what we’re hearing right now.”

As Raw Story points out, Giffords herself, prior to being shot, pointed out the poisonous effects of the sleazy and violence-baiting campaign Humphries and the rest of the Arizona Republicans were running with her opponent Jesse Kelly. And now Humphries is trying to dodge the blame for this.

If you were a disabled combat veteran who had just been through working during a grueling campaign where for over a year Tea Partiers and their Queen Bee Palin had done the whole Radio Rwanda bit, all but ordering their followers to shoot your boss, then be forced to watch your boss be shot in the head before your eyes and get shot yourself along nearly twenty others, six of whom would die, by a David-Wynn-Miller-worshiping, right-wing-theory-spouting, Gold and Silver Bug (Beck being the most notable current promoter of metallic currency) named Jared Loughner, and THEN, with your physical and emotional wounds still raw, have to listen to the guy who you hold responsible for all of this try to weasel out of it like the sleazy creep he is, I expect you might have a tough time not yelling a few intemperate remarks, too.

See, all that lovely lip service they paid to Teabagger Queen Michele Bachmann and her loyal subjects during the election went away once the ballots were cast. A key factor shortening the post-election honeymoon to being measureable in nanoseconds was the fact that the Tea Party wing of the GOP is something akin to electoral leprosy, but really, John Boehner and the GOP Old Boys’ Network wouldn’t have given Bachmann and her cohort anything even if they’d won all their races.

Cantor immediately endorsed Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling as the appropriate conservative choice over Bachmann in the leadership race. More quietly, Boehner’s office did not look with “disfavor,” as one aide put it, on Hensarling’s candidacy — despite tensions between Boehner and Cantor over the years. Their tacit approval of Hensarling, rated as one of the House’s most conservative lawmakers, was seen as a nod toward the more conservative faction of the party.

To make it clear that Hensarling was also a favorite of tea partiers, his staff blasted out endorsement after endorsement from movement favorites such as Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana and Ron Paul of Texas. Blogger Erick Erickson of RedState threw his heft behind Hensarling, as did tea party hero and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. On Tuesday afternoon, Hensarling’s staff alerted reporters to a story that showed that Hensarling had won “support from tea party Republicans.”

[…]

Once they gained the majority, Boehner and his lieutenants started deploying traditional Washington sweeteners.

Cantor continues to push for reform-minded conservatives on committees such as Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, and Rules — known colloquially as “exclusive committees.” Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Jeff Flake of Ariz. are the leading conservatives who have shown interest in seats on the spending panel. And in a sign of the shifting dynamics of conservative politics, Boehner and Cantor are signaling that they are unafraid to cross longtime Reps. Jerry Lewis of California and Joe Barton of Texas as they seek to circumvent term limit rules to regain chairmanships.

What does it tell you when Cantor, Boehner and Hensarling — three men who can barely stand the sight of one another — quickly close ranks to make sure Michele Bachmann doesn’t get anywhere near the levers of power in the House GOP caucus?

It tells me that they fear what would happen if she was so much as given a minor committee gavel, much less a leadership post. “Siddown and shaddup, Shelly!” is their message to her.

The biggest losers on Capitol Hill: the Blue Dogs, who lost over half their warm bodies last night and are now down to 26 members.

The biggest winners: The GOP — but not for long, because of the infighting that’s just erupted. To wit:

The biggest losers on the GOP side: the teabaggers, whose myth of electoral omnipotence got smashed just as hard as the Blue Dogs did: Tea Party Republicans won 36 House races, but lost 76. They also won three Senate seats but lost three other Senate races. Even better, the Republican leadership, via their friends at such establishment GOP mouthpieces as The Daily Caller, are spreading the news of the teabaggers’ electoral leprosy in order to keep Michele Bachmann from thinking she can use her Tea Party Caucus to shake down John Boehner for a leadership gig.

The biggest winners on the Democratic side: The House’s Progressive Caucus, which — unlike the Blue Dogs — is going to grow, not shrink, come January.

The law in Minnesota is simple: It says that no campaigning is allowed in the polling place. Voters must be allowed to exercise their right to vote peacefully, without being beset by partisans. The right to peace and privacy while voting is a fundamental part of our right to vote.

Now MN Majority and the North Star Tea Party “Patriots” are suing Hennepin and Ramsey counties for the “right” to outfit their voter-intimidation thugs with Tea Party logos and campaign slogans.

These groups are part of the umbrella far-right group “Election Integrity Watch”, and they’re trying to push to wear Tea Party slogans that aren’t even close to being disguised as non-partisan; the lawsuit won’t get very far in court, but that’s not its point. Its point is to be part of the climate of fear and intimidation that the Republicans are trying to create in order to keep younger and poorer voters from voting.

If anyone sees any instances of suspected voter intimidation, particularly in and around college campuses and low-income neighborhoods where voter-intimidation groups want to scare poor and twentysomething voters into thinking that it’s illegal for them to vote, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and report it to the non-partisan Election Protection people: http://www.866ourvote.org/